UK.biz hit for £250m in phone bill blunders

'SMEs get worse deal'

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Billing blunders and the misuse of company phones by employees are costing UK businesses an extra £250m a year, according to alternative telco Energis.

Its study found that three quarters of business phone bills are wrong and that seven in ten businesses are paying over the odds for their calls. Bolt on all those "personal" calls made by workers and Energis reckons companies are facing a real financial headache.

Said Peter Northing, corporate telephony expert at Energis: "The bigger the phone bill, the greater the risk of billing errors and misuse not being picked up. Fraudulent phone use alone can add up to 15 per cent to the bill but still pass unnoticed."

Although these figures are based on a survey of big firms one of those behind the research warned: "If this is the deal that corporates are getting, we can only assume that small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) are getting a worse deal." ®